Dressing Up House Plants For Christmas - A Gardeners Forum [Archive]

A few days ago in the House Plant forum, I replied to Mike "The Plant Doc" after he'd posted a cute excerpt from his radio talk show, concerning the do's and dont's of giving plants as gifts for Christmas. (See his post: "Plants as gifts!") In my reply I asked him if he thought that sprinkling body glitter on the leaves of Christmas gift plants, to make them look festive, would hurt them.
He sent me a PM in reply, which reads as follows:

Quote

I am not sure if putting body glitter on the plant will be that great of an idea or not. Even though it does sound very nice and showy, it may clog the pores in the leaves which will not allow it to transpire moisture. I don't know for sure and I am am just guessing on this one though.
Maybe a nice ribbon on a stick (stuck in the pot) and the glitter on the ribbon, and some foil wraped around the pot.
Mike Maier
The Plant Doc

I think he PM'd me, rather than posting his reply on the Forum, because he didn't know first-hand if the glitter would do any harm, which I can appreciate, but I've decided that his answer made sense, so I decided to share it with you all.

After thinking about it, I remember how hard it is to wash body glitter completely off a person , so maybe besides blocking the pores, just getting it all off the leaves would probably do even more damage to a plant!

So, here's what I decided to do:
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(tiny ornaments-$1.00)
Thanx Mike, for making me think!

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OUCH!

Patty.....I'm with you!!! I just hung some little ornaments all over my rubber plant in the kitchen...It looks pretty cool!

That is a really great idea Patty!

Patty S, just who did you have to wash body glitter off us - you party girl you.

I never thought of decorating my house plants. Cute idea.

What a great idea. I always get plants for Christmas that are meant to be around just for the season and never think to dress up what I already have on hand.

so glad i looked at this. i'm going to try to get my plants "prettied" up for the holidats... now that i am actually messing with them again!

One year I used my Ficus tree as my Christmas tree....I waited too long to go get one and they were all pitiful, so... VOILA!! A few lights, some ornaments....the kids loved it! (We had Doug's then 14 year old and Summer at the time) I may just do that this year to keep Mack from breaking the glass balls I have.

What a great idea Patty and it looks so cute~~!

That looks very festive

My rubber tree is decked out again this year, I'll have to post a pic of it.

Please do, I wanna see it;-)

Me too....pics please Loz!!

Yep I wanna see that too. I also want to see how yours looks compared to the one I am growing. Just to see what they look like all grwon up!

I'll have a pic soon...my camera broke....

Patty, that looks so festive!

Laura, maybe Santa will bring you a new camera this year...

Dianna

It's a good possibility!

Hope so Loz:-)

Between Mackenna and Dodger- we have just about decided that this is our tree this year...

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Notice- the ornaments are on the top of the plant to keep "little" hands and paws off of them.

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Kinda pitiful, huh? There are lights, too- but you can't see them because I forgot to turn off the flash....

Great job Summer

She did great;-) Looks cool!

Thanks all! She loves it!

I am proud of her- she put the ornaments up on top all by herself....such a good big sister!

I bet she feels so proud!That is neat:-)

That looks good Tonya! Great job Summer!

That is so cute Tonya, tell her she did good!

You know, it's awful hard decorating a rubber plant.....I had to invent places to hang things...on the ends of leaves and stuff....

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How cute Loz!!